David Latimer on Superpeer

New Frontier Design

My life has been defined by the pursuit of adventure, experience, and discovery over any one career path. This winding road eventually led me to starting New Frontier Design in 2015. From the Vision, to the Brand, to Architectural Design, Interior Design, and Styling/Decor, it all starts in my head and comes to life through my leadership through every step of the process. Design is my first love, but I am deeply passionate about all the different components of New Frontier and am obsessed with original, creative design, living a life driven by my principles, intentional living, sustainability and executing ideas into realities with uncompromising quality for all my projects. Born and raised in Nashville, TN, I have always been fascinated by the form and function of structures, original design, and asking why. Working construction during summers in high school, I gained the fundamental knowledge of what has become a lifelong passion for building, carpentry, the art, and science of crafting a home, and the Do-It-Yourself ethos. I studied Literature and Philosophy at Furman University, and paid for my education with an athletic scholarship. After graduating, I backpacked around Europe for 6 months on a shoestring budget. After returning from this life altering adventure, I moved to New York City. Where my passion for design first came to life while working at Ralph Lauren and Earnest Sewn. After almost 3 years in this world, I got burnt out on city life and the fashion industry and was ready for the next adventure. I found an opportunity to help build and expand an orphanage in the village of Mutungu, Uganda and jumped at the chance to serve a community with very limited resources. I spent the better part of a year in Africa, and my experience there can be described by almost every adjective you could conjure, for better and worse. This was a truly formative experience and shifted my perspective on so many things culturally, economically, and individually. Upon returning from Africa, I moved to Chicago on a whim, where I knew only a handful of people. Once there, I eventually got into the hospitality business, opening and operating restaurants. While in Chicago, I had my first immersion in interior design in the world of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs all over the city. After 6 years in Chicago, a family crisis and an opportunity to open a new restaurant/bar in Nashville brought me back south. The professional opportunity quickly devolved into what became a massive disappointment. Though I considered this a painful failure at the time, it was in hindsight one of the biggest blessings I’ve ever experienced. This led me to a year of serious introspection, which prepared me for the important next chapter of my life and career. During this season of deep introspection I began re-evaluating my values and principles, and how to incorporate these into my daily life. I mused about who I want to be, my actual behavior and habits as they compared to my ideal behavior, and the disparity between intention and execution. Mindfulness, self-awareness, self-reliance, debt-free living, sustainability, intentional living, community, reconnecting to Nature, the empowering magic of designing one's life so that the most important components of my values are brought to the forefront of daily living instead of being relegated to living these only when convenient. Amidst this season of tremendous and often painful personal growth, I discovered the relatively nascent tiny home movement. Thus began the recognition of my own nagging feelings of inadequacy with our consumer culture of envy, the wasteful ingratitude of first world striving, the addictive thinking of living to impress an imagined audience, of living for a tomorrow that never arrives today. I started to realize that the things I can change lie mostly within myself. I realized in a way I hadn't previously, that everyone has the power to change his/her own habits, patterns, perspectives, and attitude. The philosophy behind the tiny house movement (desperately needed Affordable/Attainable/Workforce Housing, making great quality design and craftsmanship attainable to many people, intentional living, new ways of creating community, reconnecting people to Nature, etc.) drew me in and inspired me to devote my working hours to furthering its cause. This philosophy guided and informed the creation of New Frontier Design. The first few years were an absolute roller coaster and provided some very dark moments of despair and disappointment. I made countless mistakes. But one thing I never did was quit, even during my darkest moments. I have been so fortunate to come across many people, mentors, peers, etc. who have been so incredibly generous with their time, resources, and words. Truly I am the product of the many amazing people I have encountered along my journey. The guys at Liberation Tiny Homes, incredible builders and people of the highest integrity, have been one of the most powerful influence in the evolution of my business. By outsourcing my tiny house builds to that incredibly talented team has allowed me to move on from the extremely time consuming process of building in house in order to do what I love most: focusing on new design projects and working very closely with my clients to help fulfill their dreams, their vision. I absolutely love working with and serving my clients. Nature is my greatest love, and much of what I do allows people to reconnect to and immerse themselves in Nature. 2020 was a huge turning point in my business and career. Tiny home demand exploded which allowed me to expand my services beyond just tiny homes. I now offer architectural and interior design services for full size, site built homes. My business is fully remote, and my clients are all over the country (primarily West Coast). Because of several large projects in the Los Angeles area and West Coast in general, I recently moved to Los Angeles. I have the tremendous privilege of working with one of my favorite architects and humans, Matthew Royce (MRoyce Architecture - www.mroycearchitecture.com), on a number of very exciting projects. I am grateful beyond words for the many people who have made my lifestyle and business possible. Truly I am nothing without the generosity, encouragement, and inspiration these incredible humans have given me. I am so excited for the new projects I’m working on and the countless adventures ahead!